A fire ripped through a shopping mall in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, late Thursday, killing at least 46 people and leaving dozens of others injured, officials said.
The deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning after people became stuck in an enclosed room and suffocated from the smoke, the country’s health minister, Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, told reporters.
At least 75 other people were injured, fire officials said.
Earlier, Bachchu Mia, a police inspector at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said that at least 27 bodies had been identified and sent to their families.
Witnesses said the shopping mall had one staircase and elevator, with no emergency exit, making escape difficult. Some people trapped inside jumped from higher floors, they said.
Deadly fires and industrial disasters, particularly in garment factories, have been a recurring problem in Bangladesh. The steady economic growth of the country of 170 million people has been a regional success story in recent years, but human rights and labor organizations have long expressed concern about poor working conditions and workplace safety measures.
The worst of the disasters happened in 2013, when the collapse of an eight-story garment factory killed more than 1,100 people. In 2021, a factory fire in the city of Narayanganj killed more than 50 people.
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